Royal Philips, HEINEKEN, Nouryon and Signify have joined forces to support the development of a wind farm in Finland. The consortium has committed to contracting renewable electricity from the wind farm for the first 10 years through a virtual PPA.
The wind farm project extends across the regions of Central and Northern Ostrobothnia in Mutkalampi in western Finland and will have a total installed capacity of 404 MW. It is being realized by Neoen, an independent French renewable energy producer, in collaboration with Prokon. The consortium concludes the PPA for 126 MW of this. A purchase contract for 125 MW had already been concluded with Google in September 2019. The project is scheduled for completion in 2023.
The virtual PPA covers an expected output volume of 330 GWh per year – equivalent to the electricity consumption of 40,000 households. Compared to the average European electricity generation, this renewable electricity will help to avoid over 230,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.
The consortium has committed to contracting renewable electricity from the wind farm for the first 10 years through a virtual PPA. The electricity will be physically delivered to the Finnish grid while the four consortium partners benefit from the Guarantees of Origin. This provides income stability for the renewable project while guaranteeing clean energy benefits for the corporate buyers.
While the companies have signed PPAs for renewable electricity in the past, this is the first time such a consortium has formed a virtual PPA to drive incremental renewable electricity for Europe.
Through this consortium, HEINEKEN will source renewable electricity for an additional 31 of its European production sites, chemicals company Nouryon will continue its progress in reducing CO2 emissions by 25% by 2025, Philips secures renewable electricity supply to power its European operations for a 10-year period and Signify solidifies its leading position on 100% renewable electricity use and doubling the pace to reach the Paris Agreement over their value chain by 2025.
The four parties were advised on the consortium by Schneider Electric.
